High school students, landowners, farmers, science clubs, life-long learners, and all citizens
committed to research are invited to conduct soil health surveys to collect and contribute data that
will help scientists understand how soil health and soil-climate interactions are affected in the state.
Volunteer citizens (teenagers, adults, families), working as individuals or in small teams, conduct soil
health surveys in study sites of their choosing. A site should be representative of a natural system
(prairie, forest, woodland) or an anthropogenic system (grassland, crop fields, animal fields). The
sites are monitored monthly between the months of February and November for at least one year.
MO DIRT provides training, a manual and a soil kit to conduct the soil health surveys.
Click here to see the content of the soil kit.
The data generated from the soil surveys provide baseline information that is shared
through the MO DIRT Data Search Portal.
This information gives participants the opportunity to learn about data management. The data is also used
by educators for teaching purposes, land owners for management decisions, and scientists to better
understand the health status of Missouri soils with changing weather patterns leading to climate change.
To join MO DIRT contact us at: modirt@danforthcenter.org
Use the menu above to enter data and to access the soil health survey and data portal manuals, the
dates of the next training sessions, and the demographics of the project.
Click here to read MO DIRT stories from participants monitoring soil health!
